Sectional buckstay



June 9, 1931. 1 J. Ff. MCLIMANS 1,809,210

sEc'TIoNAL BUCKSTAYl June 9, 1931. J. P. McLlMANs SECTIONAL BUCKSTAY 2 sheets-'sneer 2 Filed Jan. 30. 1929 Patented June 9, 1931 y UNITED: sra'rss .TOI-IN' P..MCLII1VIANS, OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA snofrIoNAL BUGKSTAY Application filed January 30, r'19259. Serial No. 336,252.

This invention relates to furnaces and the like and is illustrated herein in connection with a furnace of the openhearth type.

Y In the operation of open hearth furnaces, l 1t sometimes happens that the side walls give way and the molten metal and sla-g being treated within the basin of the furnace flow out through the opening so` formed and pour onto the floor surrounding the furnace. This burning away or other' destructive quality of the side wall ofthe furnace causesv great inconvenience by reason of the fact that it renders the furnace inoperative for a time, and causes still greater disorder inasmuch as .15 the task of taking care of the molten metal and slag during the repairing ofthe furnaceV 4 and subsequently thereto, is extremely laborious. y

According to processes now in use of repairing and again placing in' operation fur- .naces that are damaged in this manner, they molten metal and slag are permitted to cool and theroof of the furnace is removed in order to facilitate the repairing of the injured wall. When the furnace has been repaired, the chilled slag and metal' are broken up and the next undertaking is to return lthe ybroken masses to the hearth, or basin, of the furnace. This however, in most instances, is

V extremely difficult since vthe pieces to be charged are so largeV as to require the employment of a crane or other hoisting apparatus, and the distance between thev crane hook and the top of the furnace in the usual plant '35 kinstallation is so small that itis imprac- .'ticable.and in vmany instances 'impossible to hoist these pieces ,overand drop them into the furnace from the top. Y v In such instances, one of twocourses may 40 be followed: first, at a great expense', the

chilled metal and slagmay be broken up into pieces sufliciently small to permit'themfto be charged in the manner in which a furnace isy charged atv the commencement 'of a cycle of 5 operations, and second, the sidewall of thev furnace may be torn down to increase theY clearance space between the wall of the furnace and the crane hook. f v

Heretofore, furnaces of this type have gen- 56 erally been constructed with side walls reen= forced 'by vertically extending buckstays which `reach from 4the top ofthe furnace downwardly past the chill line to the bottom of the furnace. These members have-hereto-v fore been constructed in a single pieceand when it has been desired to tear downfa part of the. side Wall of the furnace it hasbeen necessary first-` to remove the entire buckstays in order to afford an unobstructed opening. Removing of the entire buckstays is an extremely expensive, burdensome, and impracticable procedure owing to the fact that the very mounting of the buckstays and the shape and disposition of the furnace and other abutting parts are such as to make the d buckstay more or less permanent Vin ,charac` ter, a fixture so to speak.l I f y In view of the foregoing considerations, the present invention has for van important object thereof the provision of buckstays con-A structed .and arranged to` permit their ready removal from the furnace whereby the wall A may be torn down with less expense and in'- convenience than hasheretofore been possible'.

An important feature of the invention which aims toward the accomplishment of the recited object consists in the provision of a 'buckstay for furnace usethat is comprisedV of a plurality of sections which arenormally bolted together to form a'rigid, or'unitary ensemble. By means of such a provision, a portion only of the buckstay vmay be removed without interfering with #the n 'remainder thereof. f

.It is another characteristic of such furnace constructions thatthe lower portion of the buckstayis the only .part that isJ in its nature, owing toits location, permanent', and it is thereforeanotherV feature of this invention to provide a buckstay having its upper portion composed cfa separable, or detachable, section vin order -thatit may be easily removed without disturbing therfixed, f-

or permanent, lower part. l Y

i There are many other extremely important features and objects of the present invention and they will be made apparent in the following description and theappe'nded claims, it being sufficient to this point only to express Cil the general purposes, functions, and utility of the invented structure. Y

By Way of illustration one of a great many different embodiments of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying` drawings, in

. Which- Figure 4 showing them in a different relationship; and

Figure 6 is still another view of the parts `shown in Figure 4, but includes in addition theretosomerfurther parts of the ensemble. 'i AIn. Figure 1, there is shown the charging i side of an open hearth furnace and this figure, together with Figure 2, discloses the furnace as comprising side walls 10, a roof 12, and a base 14 which, together with the side Walls, forms a basin A. for the reception of ore, metal, etc. that is to be submitted to a lheat treating operation.

' Thevfloor of the furnace room is indicated by the reference numeral 16 in Figure 2 and terminates, it will be noticed, in a vertical Wall 18 which is spaced slightly from the outer wall of the furnace for a purposev which will hereinafter be more fully described. 'lt is pointed out, however, that furnaces of this character are known to have a cchill line which serves as a guide in operating the furnace and this line is of approximately the same height, in most furnaces and furnace room constructions, as,"the floor 16 which adjoins the furnace. It has been heretofore stated that during the operation ofthe furnace, the side walls occasionally fall away leaving a gaping hole inthe side of `he furnace through 4which the molten metal and slag flow. To the end of reenforcing the'sidc walls the furnace is `provided upon each side with a' plurality of uniformly spaced buckstays 2O which serve as reenforcements.`

It has furthermore been pointed out that i sometimes it is desired to remove a portion of sertion into the furnace ybasin of a large'mass of material that has'escaped therefrom at the time the'brakeI in the sidewall occurred, and in' order to permit such removal it is necessary irstjto remove'vthe buckstays or at leastsuch Y portions of them as are in the way. In view of this fact, the buckstaysillustrated in the drawingsv are vof `a unique and very desirable construction and the-next fewmpar'agraphs will`r be ydevoted to setting forth,y a'fu'll ex'- planation of the construction and operation of 'these invented members.

As illustrated, the buckstays each comprise a plurality of spaced, vertically extending members or columns 22 and 24 and each of these columns in turn comprises an upper portion 26 and a lower portion 28. As illustrated in Figures 4 and 5, the lower terminal portion of the upper section 26 is provided with a tongue 8O which is shaped to fit within a groove or recess 32 formed in the upper extremity of the lower section 28. `When the two terminal portions are interfittingly engaged with one another they are joined rigidly together by means of a splice-plate 34 which is provided with a plurality of fastener receiving apertures arranged to register with similar apertures formed in the terminal portions of the sections 26 and 28.

The lower sections 28 of the buckstays are disposed with their bases resting inside of angle-irons 36j that are fixed rigidly in position. 1 i

ln ord-er to insure the several buckstays as being properly spaced apart there are provided a plurality of flat metallic wallv plates 88 which are normally disposed between adjacent buckstays and are secured in place by means of bolts or other suitable fasteners ,40 which extendv through flanges 42 (ligure 3) and thence throughyapertures in the lower sections 28.

i As shown in Figure 6 the wall plates 38 extend upwardly t`o a point above the line 0f junction between the upper section 26 and the lower section 28 of the buckstay and the flange 42 expands and covers the splice-plate 34 that is located at the line of junction. Thus, the bolts which pass through the fiange at this point pass also through some of the openings 4in the splice-plate 34,` and likewise through the terminal portions of the buckstay sections, thereby rigidly joiningall of such parts together. rfhis concludes a brief description of the construction and arrangement of the lower portions' of the buclrstays, andattention will now be given to a consideration of the upper'portions`v of the buclrstays'.

As illustrated, the members 22 and 24 continue lupwardly in spaced relationship ,to a point above the roofl 12 of the furnace whereupon they are terminated and encircled by a collar member or nieinbersn 44; At this point, however, a suitable post or standard, herein illustrated in the form of an I-beam 46 extends on Yupwardly from between the two spaced members 22 and 24 and is joined at 48 ina flange toy flange arrangement lwith a plurality ofspaced beams Oand 52. Each of the posts 46 really carries a short section of the spaced beams 50 and 52 whereby such beams and posts constitute a T-shapedpro' jection reaching from the upper'extr'emity of each buckstay. The cross-bars of the T-shaped members terminate in abutting relationship with one another and adjacent extremities are joined together rigidly by means of splice-plates 52 whereby the joined cross-bars constitute a stiff girder or beam extendingalong and above the top of the furnace to provide a support for the upper ends of the buckstays, j

In operation, when it is desired to remove a portion of the buckstay in order to facilitate the repair or removal of a portion of the side wall of the furnace,the fasteners AO-which hold in place the wall plates 38 are first removed whereupon the plates are hoisted out of the space between the vertical floor wall18 and the side wall ofthe furnace. When this hasbeen accomplished,the splice-plates 34 are exposed and may next be removed from those buckstays that it is intended to displace from the side wall of the furnace;rv

After so doing, the upper splice-plates 52 may be removed at desired points to free the upper extremities of the buclstays which it is contemplated to remove.

When the foregoing requirements have been complied with the upper section of the buckstay is free of all rigid connections and may be removed easily to permit access to' be gained to that portion of the side wall of the furnace normally disposed lbehind the buclstay. When the furnacev has been recharged and the side wall and roof repaired, the buckstays may be reassembled by reversing `the procedure just outlined without disturbing the lower, semipermanent, portion 42 of the buckstay,

Although the invention has been disclosed and described herein with particular reference to furnaces of theopen hearth variety, it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited in its application to furnaces of this type,- but may be employed in connection with furnaces ofl all types. Furthermore, the invention is not necessarily limited to furnaces at all, but may be employed in analogous organization and maybe useful in performing similarl reenforcing functions regardless of the exact type yofy construction in connections with which it is used. It is also to be understood, of course,

that modifications and changes in the illustrated embodiment of the invention may be made without departing in the slightest from the true scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Having described my invention, what l'A claim as new and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent, is:

1. A furnace construction,comprising, in combination, a plurality of'side walls, and a plurality of vertically extending buckstays associated with the side walls and arrangedto reenforce the same, the lower portions of the buckstays being rigidly aflixed in place and the upper `portions thereof being separable from the lower y'portions to permit ready vremoval. v a A p j 2. A furnace construction comprising, 1n

combination, a pluralityfof side walls, and. a

plurality offvertically extending bucks'tays associated with the side walls for the purpose of reenforcing the same, each of said buckstays comprising a lower section rigidly and y permanently attached to the furnace wall and an upper sectiony detachably secured to ,said

llower section and separable from'the furnace wall, and means for detachably securingsaid section in,yalignment to forni-a rigid structure. f Y

3. A metallurgical furnace construction comprising, in combination, a basin surrounded by a plurality of side walls, and a plurality of buckstays associated with the side walls for the purpose of reenforcing the same,each of said buclrstays being comprised of a plurality of sections located one above the other and of such lengths that the lower section extends upwardly to a point approximately of the same height as the chill line of the basin of the furnace. -v

4l. A furnace construction comprising, in

combination, a plurality of side walls, a plul rality of horizontally extending reenforcing beams located abovethe side walls, and a plurality of buckstays positioned at intervals along the side walls to afford reenforcement, said Vbuckstays being arranged to extend between the horizontal reenforcing beams and the floor. surrounding the furnace, each of,v

said buckstays comprising a plurality of vertically alined sections, one of said sections being separable from thefurnace wall and detachable from the otherfsection so as to permit facile removal and said other section being rigid with the furnace wall so as to prevent facile removal.

5. A furnace construction comprising, in combination, a plurality of side walls, a pluv rality of horizontally extending reenforcing beams located above the side walls, and a plurality of buckstays positioned at intervals along the side walls to afford reenforcement,

said buckstays being arranged to extend be- 6. A furnace construction comprising, in

combination, a plurality of side walls, a plurality of buckstays associated with the side walls for the purpose of reenforcing the same, each of said buckstays being ycomprised of a plurality of sections, one section being provided with a tongued portion and the other v provided with a grooved portion adapted for .interitting relationship vWith the tongued portion, and a splice-plate for holding the sections in rigid alinement Whenthe portions thereof are interiittedwith one another.

`7. A furnace construction comprising7 1n combination., abasin surrounded by a plurality of side Walls7 a plurality of horizontally extending reenforcing beams located above the side Walls, and a plurality of buckstays pon sitioned atziiitervals along the side Walls to afford reenforcement, said buckstays being arranged to extend between the horizontal beams and the loor, eaeh of said buclrstays being sectional with the parts having inten fitting terminal portions, and means for holding the sections in alinement With one another when the terminal portions are disposed in interfitting relationship.

Signed at Duluth, Minnesota, this 19th day of Jan., 19.29.Y L

' JOHN P. MCLIMANS. 

